Do you eat the calories recommended by MFP?

If you are doing it purely through MFP.

Put sedentary as you have a desk job, and log the exercise in your diary, you then eat the exercise calories!

Hope this helps!

J

Thanks Joe, never thought of that!! D'oh!!

Also, do you think it matters if you eat them back that day, or can it be over the course of the week?

When I followed the MFP method I would eat some of my calories on that day most of the time...other times as long as my "week" was under the net goal I was happy...

No...what I did was go to the Scooby workshop online and used the calorie calculator there...then I subtract 500 calories from my total (since they include your exercise for daily calories) That's how I came up with my daily 1600 calories..then I exercise and eat my calories back. So, most days I'm eating 2100 calories and I am losing slow and steady. so much better than starving at 1200 calories and feeling so deprived that I fail.

If you are hungry, eat. Before you eat drink 8oz of water, then eat a healthy snack it wont kill you, simply boost your metabolism (:

Here is another thread discussing this same thing:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1060891-are-you-suppose-to-eat-back-the-calories-you-burn

Best of luck!

It isn't all about the calories. Eat what they recommend, but a chocolate bar just to meet their quota doesn't help you. You need to look at the daily intake of sugar, carbs, etc also and get those under control also. If you make the daily quota of calories and it is all in chocolate you will be extremely high in sugars and that will work against you.

Having a treat does not work against you, and if you want a chocolate bar and have calories to spare, why not.

OP, if you're having problems eating that many calories, be sure to assess what you are eating. Many people label foods "bad" and then avoid them and only eat leafy greens and very low cal diet items. There's nothing wrong with eating your leafy greens, but you can add calories by skipping low fat milk and cheese and eating full fat instead. Or add a serving of nuts or nut butter. Or make your own vinaigrette salad dressing and use olive oil in it. Add an avocado to foods, etc.

If you are doing the TDEE/Scooby method, you would eat 2000 calories every day, do not log exercise, do not eat exercise calories back. You should lose at that calorie level.

If you decide to do MFP, you should eat at least 1500 calories every day, plus you log your exercise calories and you eat them back.

Those two methods should be fairly similar in your calorie level. (Some people are telling you to choose sedentary and log all exercise, but I would find it annoying to log walking the dog every day, so personally, I'd set it at lightly active and then just log anything above your day to day stuff.)

I personally don't like eating all my calories on days that I exercise, so I do the TDEE method and eat the same amount every day. Also keep in mind that both methods use equations that are based on averages. You need to pick a calorie intake, be consistant in logging and hitting your calorie goal for a month and then assess your weight loss. If you aren't losing the amount of weight that the equation says you should be losing, try upping or lowering your calories by 100 calories or so and give it another month.

The best way to find out what works for you is to accurately log and see what happens. It's an annoying process, but everything else is a guess (and what works for other people may not work for you).

i feel the same way, im always confused as to how many cals a day and i try not to use the cals earned by exercise. im thinking that is why im not losing at least 2lbs a week. i put my cals to 1400 (was at 1600-T25 suggestion) and my cals from exercise are about 500 to 600 with T25. So from reading these comments, I should also eat the cals i earned from working out? So that would be about 2000 a day worth of food? Any suggestions.

If you are doing it purely through MFP.

Put sedentary as you have a desk job, and log the exercise in your diary, you then eat the exercise calories!

Hope this helps!

J

^^^ This! It took me a while to figure this out lol, but it seems to be going well so far.

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If you have a desk job you are sedentary and you add any exercise you do when following MFP's guidelines. People get totally messed up because they confuse MFP's calculations with TDEE which is a whole different thing. Also there is a perception that sedentary is some kind of sloth who lays around all day watching paint dry when in MFP terms all it means is the average person with a desk job who goes to work, sits a fair bit at a desk, does some housework, prepares meals, etc. In general, most of us.